PRESS RELEASE

Nuclear Experts Term Prospects of Nuclear Disarmament as Grim

August 06, 2015

New Delhi: Terming the prospects of the world moving towards nuclear disarmament as “grim”, noted veteran diplomats and nuclear disarmament experts at a panel discussion on ‘Future of Nuclear Weapons: 70 Years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing' agreed that ‘Global Zero is still a distant possibility. The discussion was organised by the Indian Pugwash Society and the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on August 6, 2015, to commemorate the 70th year of ‘Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’ and to pay homage to the victims of the tragedy.

Referring to the current trend of global politics and the contemporary prospects for nuclear disarmament, the experts pointed towards the deteriorating state of great power relations. The stalemate in the US-Russian relations, the Chinese assertiveness in East Asia, North Korea’s insistence on retaining Nuclear weapons – all has created a pessimist picture of the global security order, they stated.

While agreeing that ‘managing of nuclear weapons should be the highest global priority today’ the experts insisted that Washington, Beijing and others should work together to promote global security, including in the arena of nuclear arms control and disarmament.

Talking about the US nuclear weapons, the experts noted that the programme for modernisation of nuclear weapons by the Obama Administration has posed new challenges for the prospects for world moving towards nuclear disarmament. They expressed concerns that the modernisation programme is having a cascading effect and may encourage other nations like China, Russia, to follow suit. The world could be on the cusp of a new nuclear age, with many more nuclear-armed powers, they observed.

The experts also threw light on new issues pertaining to arms control, including cyber security. Cyber security affects all countries but there are differing approaches to how best the threat is handled, which is further complicated by clandestine nature of the issues surrounding cyber-security and variety of state and non-state actors that are involved in this issue.

The panellists included Ambassador Aftab Seth, Former Indian Ambassador to Japan; Professor Varun Sahni, Professor of International Politics, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University andDr G Balachandran, Consulting Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. The session was presided over by Commodore C Uday Bhaskar.

Every year the Indian Pugwash Society commemorates the atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. The US forces had dropped an atomic bomb in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 to accelerate Japan's surrender in the WW II, killing an estimated 140,000 people. Another atomic bomb had hit Nagasaki after three days, August 9 forcing Japan to surrender to Allied Forces on August 15, bringing an end to the war.

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